Premier Zhu Rongji re-energized China's anti-corruption campaign
yesterday with a zero tolerance and vowed to crack down on
fraudulent accounting and fiscal irregularities among
administrative institutions.
Addressing a national working conference on graft busting, Zhu
called for accelerated reform of fiscal budget management, calling
for specialized management of fiscal revenues outside the annual
budget which flows into government offices.
Lack of transparency and supervision on these accounts has led to a
"dirty money" inflow as profit-seeking business people seek to
bribe officials in return for advantageous contracts or privileges.
He required administrative and judicial departments to return all
revenues outside their annual budget to State coffers for
specialized management.
Other departments retaining the revenues should open their accounts
to keep the records transparent, he said. "We need to enhance
financial transparency within the government, nipping corruption in
the bud," said Zhu.
The stern words were in tune with the central government's ongoing
campaign to eradicate graft and corruption of all forms within the
bureaucracy.
High-level officials indulging in dodgy deals and irregularities
have been exposed in the past two years. Among them were former
Jiangxi Deputy Governor Hu Changqing and National People's Congress
Standing Committee Vice-Chairman Cheng Kejie. Cheng was the
highest-ranking official executed since 1949.
Prosecutors also investigated the Xiamen smuggling case in Fujian
Province, said to be the most notorious smuggling scandal in
Chinese history. Major culprits including several senior officials
were executed. While acknowledging the two-year crackdown effort,
Zhu said the battle was far from being over.
"Problems of officials trading power for kickbacks, abusing power
for personal gains and carried away with bribes are still going
up," said Zhu.
"We need a persistent effort to maintain a clean government so that
it can serve the people's best interests."
(China
Daily February 21, 2002)